Various devices and methods are known in connection with such cheese-producing textile machines for supplying the multiple winding stations of these textile machines sufficiently with empty tubes which are required by the winding stations of these textile machines for producing fresh winding cheeses or bobbins.
For example, one known tube feeding device for a textile machine as described in German Patent Publication DE 25 06 417 C2, has a continuously circulating conveyor chain extending over the length of the machine, with conveying hooks on the conveyor chain for receiving empty tubes. Interim reservoirs are pivotably seated in the area of the winding stations of the textile machine to be pivoted into the transport track of the conveyor chain into a position to strip a fresh empty tube from the conveyor chain, which subsequently falls into the interim reservoir.
When required, a cheese changer servicing the winding stations removes the empty tube from the interim reservoir and transfers it into the frame of the respective spinning or winding station. Thereafter, the interim reservoir is again positioned in its empty tube receiving position in the area of the conveying track of the conveyor chain and is again filled with an empty tube. This device has been shown to be unsuitable, in particular in case of a multi-batch operation of the textile machines, and therefore has not been accepted in actual commercial use.
Tube supply installations based on European Patent Publication EP 0 262 726 A2 and German Patent Publication DE 195 29 566 A1 represent the current state of the art, and basically have the winding stations of a cheese-producing textile machine connected with a central tube magazine arranged at the end of the machine via a tube conveyor belt extending over the length of the machine. In case of a cheese change, a service unit is positioned at the respective winding station and exchanges the finished cheese against a previously requested empty tube, which had been delivered by the tube conveyor belt. The movable service units of these textile machines have manipulating devices, by means of which they can pick up empty tubes from the conveyor track and place them into the spinning frame of the spinning station.
The main disadvantage of these known devices is that the cheese changer positioned at the winding station must first wait for the arrival of a requested empty tube. The waiting times which thereby occur have a negative effect on the total efficiency of these textile machines. To avoid such waiting times, it has already been suggested in the past to provide interim reservoirs in the area of the winding stations to be supplied with empty tubes via the tube conveyor belt. The cheese changer then can take an empty tube out of these interim reservoirs at any time and can transfer it immediately into the spinning frame.
Installations, wherein the textile machines have a central tube magazine arranged at the end of the machine, are described in German Patent Publications DE 195 12 891 A1 or DE 195 21 372 A1. In these installations, the tube magazine is connected in a known manner with the interim reservoirs at the winding stations via a tube conveyor belt extending over the length of the machine. The cheese changers of these textile machines have a manipulating device for transferring the empty tubes from the tube conveyor belt to the interim reservoirs, as well as a manipulating device for picking up and transferring the empty tubes deposited in the interim reservoirs to the spinning frame of the respective spinning stations. With these known installations, a fresh empty tube is requested by the service unit immediately at the start of the cheese changing process, which is transferred to the interim reservoir of the winding station by the service unit before it leaves the winding station.